A new single apprentice registration system will “significantly” cut admin and increase speedy payments for training providers, according to the Department for Education.
In another announcement during this year’s National Apprenticeships Week, the DfE said training providers will no longer be required to enter key apprentice registration details across two separate systems: the ILR and the apprenticeship service.
Instead, there will be a “single data source” that will remove the need for the same data to be added to both systems and then cross-checked and verified.
DfE told FE Week that apprentice data added to the ILR will be visible to employers through their apprenticeship service account. This will remove the need for data matching and double entering of data.
If it works, the change, due to be fully rolled out in August 2026, should see an end to so-called “data match errors“. These occur when data about an apprentice submitted by a training provider on the ILR doesn’t match the data submitted by the employer on the government’s apprenticeship service.
These errors, also called DLOCKS, can be costly because providers don’t get paid until the error is resolved. This currently takes up to two months on average, DfE told us.
The department claims their new “single data source” will “eliminate data mismatches” between the two databases.
Writing for FE Week, skills minister Jacqui Smith said: “We are simplifying payment processed for apprenticeship training providers and will no longer require them to replicate their data entry to receive funding for apprenticeship training delivered.
“As a result, providers will no longer encounter data mismatches, eliminating the problems they cause such as delayed payments and increased admin errors.”
The government said it will begin to remove data duplication from this August. Once rolled out a year later, providers will no longer need to enter data into the apprenticeship service.
Speeding up payments to providers will not only cut admin costs but also improve their cash flow.
The Association of Employment and Learning Providers welcomed the move.
Simon Ashworth, deputy CEO, said: “This is a welcome measure and will reduce the disproportionate time, effort and cost placed on providers, allowing them to receive payment with fewer delays.”
More information on implementation has been promised “in due course” from government.
My worry, as an ILR absolutist, is that all the noise that’s come from Apprenticeship Service about this over the last three or four years to “simplify” the system has been about removing the ILR’s place in the payment system to get rid of DLOCKs. There will be NO savings for ANY provider if this happens as the ILR will still have to be accurate for Achievement Rate purposes. I genuinely hope this is not the case, but it would be a complete about face and I’ve seen no sign of AS developing systems that would purely be based on the ILR…
It will be interesting to see if it removes the employer authorisation that is currently required in the Apprenticeship Service. If not, there will be still be delays in funding released. At worse it may cause additional delays with ILR populating the Apprenticeship Service after month end submission, that then requires authorisation meaning funds released the following month!